Boarding day cruise ship tips for 2023

the first day of your cruise is arguably the most important day of your cruise so I've got the most important tips you need to know about boarding day here we go [Music] hey everyone it's Matt from worldcommandblog.com embarkation day is the start of a new cruise and it's filled with excitement and energy and a lot of anticipation after months and months maybe even years of planning a cruise but the boarding day experience has changed over the last couple of years and with different requirements and Royal Caribbean policy changes what should you do on the first day of your Royal Caribbean cruise to have an amazing time I wanted to tackle this because if you hear me share tips and secrets here on this channel I've often talked about the importance of doing certain things on the first day of the cruise so today I want to talk about what you should expect from when you wake up the morning of embarkation day until you really get on board the ship and are ready and settled in so we're gonna go through the whole process here to tell you the most important things you should be doing on the first day of your cruise number one this actually starts well before the first day of your cruise and that is due to the online check-in as early as possible so Royal Caribbean will allow you to do the online check in up to 45 days before your sailing this allows you to not only just enter information about yourself to save you time on the cruise terminal but it gives you the most important thing possible which is a check-in time yes your check-in time does matter we'll talk about that a little later in this video but to get the earliest check in time get it exactly 45 days before for your ceiling if you do it through the Royal Caribbean App instead of the website you can actually grab a check-in time without doing any of the other check-in process you go back to it later and do the rest of it which you should but most importantly you want to get that early check-in time a lot of people ask me if they should get the key for a variety of reasons but Chief among them to get an early check-in time and if you check in 45 days before you're selling you won't need the key because you're going to have one of the earliest check-in times which is usually around somewhere between 10 30 11 o'clock in the morning something like that but do your online check-in as early as possible and then make sure you finish the rest of it before your cruise because basically when you get to that morning of your sailing you want to make sure that you've done everything in the app all the time you take to do the online check-in beforehand in the app will save you time in the cruise terminal I can't emphasize this enough how important it is because it's your vacation time I would rather be spending time on board the ship having a good time rather than standing in the cruise terminal doing things could have done when I was at work or in the evening sometimes sitting on the couch do yourself a favor do the online check in as early as possible all right so what should you do next well definitely fill out the health questionnaire the day before the cruise the final step of that check-in process in the Royal Caribbean app is a day beforehand to fill out some health questionnaire items again you could do this in the cruise terminal when they go through this but rather than have the person checking you in go through each single person in your party and ask them the same questions you can do it via the app a lot faster fill out the health questionnaire it's pretty straightforward and the nice thing about cruising here in 2023 is that a lot of the questions that used to be in here are no longer the case and depending on your selling where you're selling from a lot of the covid questions that were in here before are no longer required now I don't want to go off here and make generalizations about protocols because they do differ depending on where you sail from but as of the recording of this video being vaccinated and having a pre-cover tester no longer required for cruises out of North America and so when you're going on a cruise now and 2023 there's a good chance the health questionnaire is more of a mere formality than what it used to be in the last couple of years regardless of that fact fill out the health questionnaire the day before the cruise so that way you've got that all set up number three you want to pack the important items in your carry-on so whether you're coming from your hotel or your house and you're going to the cruise terminal before you leave have a carry-on bag that has the most important things in there what should you have in there Matt well that's a great question you should have your passport your birth certificate any identification travel documents you want to have all that in your carry-on bag you want to carry your cash in there your wallet basically maybe that's in your pocket maybe it's in your purse maybe it's in your carry-on bag whatever that stuff should be there medication any importance especially prescription medication should be in your carry-on bag you should also put in there maybe some things for the first day of the cruise before your luggage is ready in your cabin things like a bathing suit because did you know that the pools and water slides and all those fun activities are open on embarkation day and a lot of other people don't have their bathing suits with them so if you have it with you in your carry-on when you get on board the ship later on you can change into that bathing suit and enjoy those facilities without much of a weight at all it's actually one of the best times ever to enjoy time at the pool or the water slides because the lines are the shortest on our vacation day number four is to arrive at your check-in time for the cruise terminal so that time that you got for check-in that we did 45 days beforehand is the time you're going to arrive at the cruise terminals okay if you arrive a little bit early for that especially if you're parking a car I mean that's going to take you time to park the car and do all those things but you want to adhere to the time that you signed up for because depending on the port they can really strictly or not so strictly enforce it but it's a really good idea to make sure that you show up to the port at your schedule check-in time again this is your check-in time not your boarding time they're not the same thing so if your checking time is noon and you arrive at 11 15 a.m you probably will be allowed to board but if your checking time isn't until 2 p.m and you arrive at 10 A.M you might have to be waiting around a while so the best idea is to make sure you adhere to your time so there's no issues at all next up be sure to drop off your luggage with the porters when you arrive at the cruise terminal on embarkation day leave your luggage with the porters I really can't recommend this enough take a small carry-on bag of course with you on the ship but leave the bigger luggage with the porters it never ceases to amaze me the people that lug their own luggage on board the ship and then are saddled with it until their cabins are ready bags will be delivered to your Stadium later in the day so you won't have to worry about lugging your big suitcase or duffel bag around the ship now yes it is customary to give the small tip for each bag you leave at the porters how much a dollar or two per bag it's really not a lot to ask for in order to have a lot of that weight literally taken off your shoulders or back or wherever you're lugging that suitcase around from it's just so much easier do yourself a favor and drop off the luggage with the porters something you can be doing during the morning especially when you're driving over to the cruise terminal is to complete muster 2.0 so so if you Cruise back in the day when I say back in the day pre-2020 you may recall the old days of the mustard drill in which at some point during the cruise everything shut down and you had to go to your mustard station those days are gone you don't have to do that anymore Royal Caribbean now has a new e-muster system in which basically you go through the Royal Caribbean app on embarkation day and complete much of the process so my recommendation is if you have some down time again you're driving to the cruise terminal you're waiting in the cruise terminal you're at lunch complete the muster station process by going in the Royal Caribbean app and filling out the process there's three basic steps number one is to watch the safety video on your phone number two is to listen to the emergency signal and then when you have all that done all you have to do for step number three is go to your muster station at some point in the afternoon check in they'll confirm that you know where it is and that's it super simple now you could do the mustard drill really at any time from your phone you could do it later on in the day my thought is to do that while you have a little bit of down time again driving to the terminal waiting in the terminal These are times in which you've got nothing else to do so you may as well take advantage of doing it and yes you can complete steps one and two of the E muster drill at any time on embarkation day including even before you board the ship so that's why I recommend taking advantage of that downtime if you haven't and if not if you're too busy things are moving really really quickly and you don't have that time that's okay too you can do the musters process at some other point in that morning or early afternoon just don't forget about it because there's usually announcements reminding guests to do that muster drill process don't be that person who forgets about it get it taken care of and then once you're on the ship you can go right to your muster station make sure that you confirm that you're there they check you in and it's going to be super easy and quick so you're on board the ship now what is the first thing you should do actually is to make especially restaurant reservations these days more and more people are booking specially restaurants even more so than before 2020. since cruises restarted in 2021 there has been a renowned emphasis on especially dining a lot of people are just simply saying YOLO book it we're going to take advantage of being on a cruise and we're going to splurge and do specialty dining so if you have a dining package you absolutely want to make especially restaurant reservations as soon as you get on board the best way to do this is number one have a list of days and times when restaurants want to eat at before you ever get on board the ship my recommendation is to do this in the days or weeks leading up to your cruise you know just sit on the couch talk it over come up with a list like day one we want to eat dinner at this restaurant day two at this restaurant and pick ballpark times once you have that list when you get on board the ship you can go to any specialty restaurant and book any other specialty restaurant so if you're going to chops Grill you can not only make a reservation for chops Grill but you can also make a reservation for any other specialty restaurant there and they can help you out that's a huge benefit in addition when you're boarding the ship you may see a stand on the Royal Promenade or in the Royal Centrum in which there's a crew member there and usually the sign like especially restaurant reservations something like that they can also make reservations for you there the bottom line is you want to be proactive if you have a dining package my best advice is to make reservations on the first day of the cruise don't wait it's not just that you couldn't get a reservation later on but the best times especially if you want a dinner time between say six and eight o'clock P.M you're going to want to make the reservations on the first day and I really do think it's most important to do so as soon as you get on board the ship one especially a restaurant that you may have to make a special trip for in order to book would be Izumi Hibachi Zumi Hibachi is super popular people love the Teppanyaki style down including myself and for reservations there depending on the ship you may have to go to the restaurant itself in order to make a reservation don't worry they'll let you know if you have to do that but get your reservations done as soon as you get on board that's super important number two once you have the dining set the next thing you want to do is open up the Royal Caribbean app and connect to the real Caribbean Wi-Fi it's okay if you don't have an internet package you don't need it in order to use the real Caribbean app when you connect to the Wi-Fi it'll give you two options do you have a package or do you just want to use the app and whichever one you want to use use but get on the Wi-Fi that way you can book the shows via the Royal Caribbean app so this isn't available on every single ship but if you're on a ship that has the ability to pre-book entertainment via the Royal Caribbean app you absolutely want to do this this is definitely the case for real quick means Oasis and Quantum class ships booking a reservation for a show is complimentary there's no cost to do so and there's also by the way no obligation actually show up for the show it's a good idea that you go to the show that you book but that being said it's to your advantage to make a reservation and in a lot of cases you can't book reservations until you actually get on board the ship some ships actually do allow you to pre-book entertainment via the website before the cruise so again if you're selling on one of the newer ships check the cruise Planner on Royal Caribbean's website for that ability and it really is important to try to book that as early as you can I know we're talking about embarkation day but it's a good idea to check for entertainment availability I would say 60 and 45 days before your cruise to see if there's anything there now if you get on board the ship and there's no availability for reservations for shows or maybe your ship is one of those that you could have pre-booked entertainment and everything sold out already does that mean you can't see the shows no absolutely not there will be standby lines for every single show if you arrive to the show time I would say 15 to 20 minutes before the show time you're gonna have a pretty good chance of being able to get in there because there's a lot of no shows for those reservations the downside to having free reservations or shows is that the flakiness of some guests is pretty apparent because they didn't spend any money to make the reservation there's no penalty for not showing up so for a lot of people they make a reservation you know oh I want to go see the show and then they're having a great time at a bar or by the pool and they're like ah forget it we're not going so there's always an opportunity for no shows and to be able to go there in a standby line so don't feel like if you don't get a reservation you can't do it but pre-booking is super important one more thing about pre-booking if you're on a ship that has signature activities that require pre-booking like North Star or ripcord by iFly or Zone zero you definitely want to pre-book these this is actually super important because they will sell very quickly for the Royal Caribbean app so make sure you do that and it's actually not a bad idea if one of you is doing especially restaurant reservations someone else in the party can be booking the shows via the app again a good idea before the cruise is to have a ballpark idea of days and times you want to do these kinds of things next up really important have lunch you deserve it at this point you've done the most important things I think at this point you've crossed the barrier of like super critical and now we're gonna move it to just like good to do and important things to do but the most important thing is have lunch certainly on your Royal Caribbean ship there'll be a couple different options for lunch on the first day of your cruise certainly the most preeminent option the most popular option is the wind Gemaire the Windjammer Marketplace it's the complimentary Buffet most people go here because it just has a lot of options and it seems to work for most people now there are going to be a good alternatives for embarkation day for lunch and this will depend on the ship you're sailing on but places like Park Cafe Solarium Bistro maybe even especially a restaurant did you know if you have a dining package you can actually elect to go to especially a restaurant that is open on embarkation day and it would be included with your dining package again you have to check with your dining package as to which allocation you have but if you have the unlimited dining package as an example you can absolutely go to a especially restaurant for lunch and enjoy your time there all right number 10 on my list is to confirm your main dining room reservation so if you have my time dining or you just want to see what table assignment you have or really any concern about the main dining room this is a good time to head down there and double check all those things the main dining room will be open for not only reservations for folks that have my time which by the way if you have my time dining make reservations it's to your advantage you'll have a shorter wait to do so but no matter what your issue is I'm just using this as a global catch-all from main dining room stuff go to the main dining room in the early afternoon like one o'clock noon time it's a really good opportunity for that number 11 sign your kids up for adventure ocean so Adventure ocean is the complimentary kids programming on board and they have an open house on the first day of the cruise usually right around one o'clock P.M until a couple hours in and basically this is an opportunity to sign your kids up and meet the staff this is really helpful if you have questions obviously about the adventure ocean process but also it's a really good opportunity for your kids to meet the staff members see the space and get to kind of you know preview what it's all about a lot of kids and their parents admittedly have some apprehension about Adventure ocean it's kind of a new thing especially if you're new to cruising but this program is super helpful a lot of fun for kids and I really feel like getting up there to be able to visualize it all and see what it's all about is truly helpful not only that signing up on the first day means you're not going to waste time later on the evening session when Adventure ocean is open trying to sign your kids up it's a lot easier to do this on the first day in the afternoon so get up there and take advantage of that and the last really important thing that you should do on the first day of your cruise is meet your stateroom attendance so later on in the afternoon I'd say around two three o'clock usually the stereo attendants are coming out there so it's a really good idea when you get in your cabin number one look around your cabinets back to look for anything that is you know out of the ordinary or something that's maybe not functioning correctly so you can alert them to it but also meet your cabinet tendon to let them know any preferences you have do you need extra towels would you like to have ice in your cabin every day any special requests maybe opening up a balcony divider if there's a Crib That's supposed to be in your cabin and it's not there you can ask for that again meeting your cabin attendant on the the first day is super important sometimes they can get busy you can get busy and it's easy to miss each other on the first day of the cruise but I would say it's a really good idea to make an effort usually when you're unpacking your stuff anyway in your cabin and meet your cabin attendant for any kind of issues that may pop up or just simply a friendly hello that's also nice on everything has to be terrible and like oh no what if I have problems no sometimes it's really nice to just get to know your cabin attendant and be able to meet them and just put a face to the name because again they'll be taking care of you during your sailing my 2023 boarding day cruise ship tips that you should know about if you're going on a Royal Caribbean cruise this year again this is about the important critical things to take care of there's lots more you should be doing on vacation day like having a good time yo go play mini golf take a nap enjoy time with the pool there's lots of fun things to do I don't want this to seem like an overbearing military operation that you need to conduct on the first day this is all about setting you up for an amazing Cruise the rest of your selling and I think a little bit of effort on day one can really pay dividends as your cruise progresses throughout the rest of the sailing let me know in the comments below what tips would you share for the first day of your cruise and what are the most important do's and don'ts for the first day of your selling let me know in the comments down there below if you found this video helpful hit the like button subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications that way YouTube lets you know we have a brand new video to share this has been Matt from royalcaribbeanblog.com and we'll talk again real soon

Channel: Royal Caribbean Blog

Views: 529,081

Keywords: Royal Cribbean, RCCL, Cruise, Travel, Embarkation day, First day, Boarding day, Cruise tips, Cruise advice, cruise advice for first timers, cruise ship advice, cruise tips and tricks, cruise tips royal caribbean, royal caribbean cruise, first day on cruise ship

Id: 8bVkG5jf4mE

Length: 17min 27sec (1047 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 05 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Mottaman]

if you've never been on an RC cruise before just sit on that channel for a day lol You'll be an expert after a few hours

[u/Clbengel]

Royal Caribbean Blog has some great info sometimes. Maybe it's just me, but this Matt guy puts me to sleep. They need someone with more personality narrating their videos.